Final Fantasy VI-VIII are probably among the easiest JRPG's in history. It's too easy to beat those going melee only. VIII is just fucked with the junctions and crap though. I've probably defended VIII before, I played through it a decade ago and loved it, but I've tried replaying it like 2-3 times over the last 10 years or something and can never bring myself to get far anymore, the gameplay with the cards/drawing/junctions bores me to tears, so I just can't do it ever again. Best left in the past.

BastardHead wrote:

VI is better than V overall (especially storywise, the plot and characters of VI is among the best in the series), but V has my favorite moment and the most emotionally taxing sequence in any of the games.

Ditto and I think I'm going to say I like ExDeath more than Kefka. Yes, I went there. Kefka is arguably better than Sephiroth, but I still don't think he's that great or interesting at all really. ExDeath came off as a bit more hilarious in a literal batshit insane way and his goal to bring the universe to absolutely nothingness (along with himself) was certainly more out there than cliche' Deus Ex Machina rule them all Kefka's plans. Fucking clowns.

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I used to attribute my unending love of VII to nostalgia, but playing through again recently made me realize that I just do really like it. I get why people dislike the characters/setting, but I think they all work really well. In fact, a buddy of mine (who doesn't at all like VII, mind you) has explained to me the "Midgar Effect", the one big positive he can give the game. For the first several hours, you're stuck in this giant industrial slum. Everywhere you go is run down and broken, and all you hear or see is this enormous, overbearing, oppressive city. You can't see the sky, and everywhere you look is just more walls, more alleys, and more decadence. You get to the Shinra Tower and even then the sky is black and coated with smog. It's a hugely bleak picture that nobody breaks free from. And then the motorcycle chase happens, you fight Motor Ball, and then... you escape. That first moment when you step out onto the world map and see that faceless, malevolent city as just a blip on the map helps give the game a sense of perspective that none of the other ones really come close to reaching.

Ditto, I don't care what people say, although the fanbase or anti-fans are both annoying, but I still think FFVII is a great game. It's one of the few FF's I've been able to easily go back to and replay, and believe me I could probably dissect how freaking terrible the characters and plot gets sometimes (don't even get me started about Tifa going in Cloud's mind), but it's still a fun game with a lot of charm. Screw every single sequel/spinoff/movie/related stuff though, seriously. I like FFVII, the game itself and that's it.

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I prefer the graphics of VII to VIII, personally. There was a weird time in history where the 2D sprites looked infinitely better than the primitive blockiness of the Playstation, and that's why I loved how they really just went all out and made the characters look cartoony in comparison to the extremely detailed pre rendered environments.

In this case yeah, I'd say I like the "perspective" for FFVII over FFVIII's. In VII the camera was often very far back so you got this big sense of scope with how huge the settings and world was, but in VIII the camera was usually right up front and yeah the settings were just generic. It's blend of sci-fi/fantasy wasn't nearly as cool as FFVII's grittier look to me, or the more steampunk majesty of FFIV-VI.

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IX is super underrated, but I have to point out that that one is the king of out-of-nowhere final bosses. You literally kill the guy you've been chasing for a majority of the game, and then this dude just pops out of a black hole and says "I'm'nna eat you" and then the game ends when you kill him. It's so bizarre. Otherwise IX could well be my favorite PS1 era FF. I like how lighthearted it is while at the same time having some of the darkest shit the series has ever seen. Vivi's arc is soul draining. And then on the other hand Zidane is the polar opposite of Squall, which I'm sure pleased a ton of people.

Necron, haha yeah. At least there's explanations about Zeromus and stuff, but Necron... just pure wtf.

Gotta be honest folks but I don't get all hot and bothered about FFIX like most. I'd hardly call it "underrated", seems to be the bandwagon people jump on the most from what I've seen over the years. I beat it back in the day like the others and loved it then, even got all the cards (always 100%'d RPG's back then), but yeah I've never really felt compelled to replay it and I look back on the others a lot more.

But yeah still plenty of other JRPG's I'd easily put above any of the FF's. Xenogears and Suikoden II are the kings for me and nothing else even comes close.

...or you could've just equipped the Moogle Charm and walked straight to the top in 30 seconds.

There's a boss, you know. Anyway, it's stupid to say that magic was useless in FF6, mages were very powerful in it, especially Terra in Esper form casting Ultima like 4x with the proper relics equipped at 9999 damage each, not to mention the ridiculously OP Life3 and the Vanish+Doom or Vanish+X-zone trick.

Xeogred wrote:

But yeah still plenty of other JRPG's I'd easily put above any of the FF's. Xenogears and Suikoden II are the kings for me and nothing else even comes close.

...or you could've just equipped the Moogle Charm and walked straight to the top in 30 seconds.

There's a boss, you know.

Yeah, but you can cast Berserk on him, which makes him unable to use anything but his (very weak) melee attacks.

Morrigan wrote:

Anyway, it's stupid to say that magic was useless in FF6, mages were very powerful in it, especially Terra in Esper form casting Ultima like 4x with the proper relics equipped at 9999 damage each, not to mention the ridiculously OP Life3 and the Vanish+Doom or Vanish+X-zone trick.

Yeah, magic is really powerful. But I mean really, unless it's your very first playthrough and you're an RPG rookie, the game is easy enough that you can basically run with whatever party composition you want and do fine.

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MorbidBlood wrote:

So the winner is Destruction and Infernal Overkill is the motherfucking skullcrushing poserkilling satan-worshiping 666 FUCK YOU greatest german thrash record.

Been playing Phantasy Star IV myself lately actually... I kind of cheated and jumped right in (haven't played the others), but yeah I really dig it so far. Don't think I'm too far, but I'm at Zio's castle. I love how outside of the battles the game looks and feels like a sci-fi Suikoden, lol.

I got s-video cables for my modded Saturn so I'm pretty excited to hit up some more Saturn stuff this year, the Panzer Dragoon games being on my plans.

As of this moment I am playing a classic. Resident Evil 4 is the best of its kind and it still is as good today as it ever was. I remember playing the orginal on the cube' and the WII version is just as good. Maybe someday RE wll return to its former glory.....

I'm actually playing through it right now, and as far as I'm aware, you won't need the analog stick. The only that I'm aware of it being "required" for is moving around the world map in an unrestricted mode via a cursor.

Well, fuck this. I bought the UMD on eBay, got it today, and... the game isn't playable. In the first battle, the overhead camera pans too high and there's no way to "unstick" it. I wiggled the analog stick as much as I could, but the best I managed was to pan the camera all the way to the bottom, and while trying to center it, it just moved up again. Using the d-pad to pan the camera didn't work.

I wish the camera just followed the selected unit by default, FFT style.

So.... guess I'll need to have that thing repaired after all, or just get a new one.

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Von Cichlid wrote:

I work with plenty of Oriental and Indian persons and we get along pretty good, and some females as well.

Markeri, in 2013 wrote:

a fairly agreed upon date [of the beginning of metal] is 1969. Metal is almost 25 years old

I'm actually playing through it right now, and as far as I'm aware, you won't need the analog stick. The only that I'm aware of it being "required" for is moving around the world map in an unrestricted mode via a cursor.

Well, fuck this. I bought the UMD on eBay, got it today, and... the game isn't playable. In the first battle, the overhead camera pans too high and there's no way to "unstick" it. I wiggled the analog stick as much as I could, but the best I managed was to pan the camera all the way to the bottom, and while trying to center it, it just moved up again. Using the d-pad to pan the camera didn't work.

I wish the camera just followed the selected unit by default, FFT style.

So.... guess I'll need to have that thing repaired after all, or just get a new one.

Oh shoot, sorry for misleading you.

I'd thought you meant your analog stick was just not working at all, but it's actually stuck in the up position? In either case, sorry again.

This fills me with cautious anticipation. I mean, it would be pretty neat, but it could also backfire if Valve just decides "Fuck you Germany". Eh, they'll probably find a way to not change a thing.

Problem is that this is a bit too complicated to resolve while pleasing everyone. Revoking games that purely rely on Steamworks is easy enough, but what about games that give you a game activation/cd key when you buy them (e.g. Games For Windows Live games)? Sure, Valve can revoke Street Fighter 4 from my Steam account, but they need cooperation from Microsoft to deactivate my SF4 activation key.

It might be easy try to fix analog stick by yourself, in worst case you probably have to change new stick but it shouldn't be much problem with those instructions. I've opened my PSP couple times, not for analog stick issue though, all you need is a screwdriver. Hope this helps.

This fills me with cautious anticipation. I mean, it would be pretty neat, but it could also backfire if Valve just decides "Fuck you Germany". Eh, they'll probably find a way to not change a thing.

I see no reasons to be worried. I think Valve are aware of how massive the can of worms they're going to open by cutting Germany out (think of the backlash it will cause, now think of the fact that this lawsuit is based on a EU ruling and therefore any country that's part of the EU could easily chime in as well or sue Valve by themselves - that's quite an unhealthy mix).

But yeah, even if the lawsuit succeeds you're probably going to see no effective changes.

So? I never said you could beat the whole thing without casting any spells. Berserk is just a status effect and your party's lack of good spellcasting stats isn't going to affect it at all (as far as I remember anyway).

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MorbidBlood wrote:

So the winner is Destruction and Infernal Overkill is the motherfucking skullcrushing poserkilling satan-worshiping 666 FUCK YOU greatest german thrash record.

I've started playing Dark Souls again after a long time, picking up where I left off somewhere in the midst of my second playthrough. This time I have online though so I'm excited about that since I never got to play Dark or Demon's Souls with online enabled. Guess I have a bit to learn, lol.

Morrigan I took your advice from before and went and got a Murakamo+15. The thing is kickass. I've also invested in an upgraded suit of armour and some better shields and stuff. Gonna try and get that Darkmoon Talisman as I go along.

I've started playing Dark Souls again after a long time, picking up where I left off somewhere in the midst of my second playthrough. This time I have online though so I'm excited about that since I never got to play Dark or Demon's Souls with online enabled. Guess I have a bit to learn, lol.

Morrigan I took your advice from before and went and got a Murakamo+15. The thing is kickass. I've also invested in an upgraded suit of armour and some better shields and stuff. Gonna try and get that Darkmoon Talisman as I go along.

You picked the wrong time to do it though, dude. Dark Souls' online, at least for any serious PVP, is in the worst state it's ever been.

So? I never said you could beat the whole thing without casting any spells. Berserk is just a status effect and your party's lack of good spellcasting stats isn't going to affect it at all (as far as I remember anyway).

Well, I see the goalposts keep shifting I guess, I don't believe I said anything about stats, but Zelkiro was saying magic was 100% worthless in the game and I was saying he was a dumbass for saying so it really wasn't, and in fact it's very useful (whether it's for support or attack) and fairly powerful, and there's at least one place where it's pretty much required unless you use very specific workarounds (and even that one workaround requires using at least one Esper to learn a spell). *shrugs*

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Von Cichlid wrote:

I work with plenty of Oriental and Indian persons and we get along pretty good, and some females as well.

Markeri, in 2013 wrote:

a fairly agreed upon date [of the beginning of metal] is 1969. Metal is almost 25 years old

My wife bought me new laptop for gaming, and it included Windows 8. Everything I have tried to play from Steam will not play on my new "gaming" laptop. I spent about 3 or 4 hours yesterday doing recommendations to get Fallout 3 to work. Anyone have these issues, or have any suggestions?

My wife bought me new laptop for gaming, and it included Windows 8. Everything I have tried to play from Steam will not play on my new "gaming" laptop. I spent about 3 or 4 hours yesterday doing recommendations to get Fallout 3 to work. Anyone have these issues, or have any suggestions?

What happens when you try to launch the games? Does it just crash to the desktop?

I loads the intro, and once I hit new game, it crashes. I didn't even get the intro, until one of the updates that I did. Not sure which one. I tried adding windows live, I tried the quad core fix, I tried a patch on the Nexus forum. Tried working on it all day so far, and I've run out of ideas.

Shit man, I've had those problems before too but I can't remember exactly how I fixed them. But I was on Vista (I still am, please hold your applause) and I'm not too familiar with Windows 8. If I could help you, I would, because I know how much it fucking sucks to have your games crashing for no apparent reason. Apologies

My wife bought me new laptop for gaming, and it included Windows 8. Everything I have tried to play from Steam will not play on my new "gaming" laptop. I spent about 3 or 4 hours yesterday doing recommendations to get Fallout 3 to work. Anyone have these issues, or have any suggestions?

Switch to Windows 7. And I'm dead serious - not only there's probably only a handful of games currently on the market that are truly optimized for Windows 8, but also Valve were pretty vocal about NOT planning to support Windows 8.

My wife bought me new laptop for gaming, and it included Windows 8. Everything I have tried to play from Steam will not play on my new "gaming" laptop. I spent about 3 or 4 hours yesterday doing recommendations to get Fallout 3 to work. Anyone have these issues, or have any suggestions?

Switch to Windows 7. And I'm dead serious - not only there's probably only a handful of games currently on the market that are truly optimized for Windows 8, but also Valve were pretty vocal about NOT planning to support Windows 8.

I actually did purchase Windows 7, and am planning on making the switch asap. From what I've read their are still compatibility issues with Steam games and Windows 7.

Just finished Waking Mars on my Android (I believe there's a PC version too). Big recommendation. It's a side scrolling adventure game where you explore life in caves on mars. It starts pretty simple but steadily adds new gameplay elements with the story unfolding, making it rather complex experience at the end. If you are into the joy of exploration this is definitely your game. Also if you are a biology nerd because it seems they made a real effort to make everything as plausible as possible without killing the fun.

Anyone try the open multiplayer beta for Crysis 3? I played a round on each of the game modes and maps. Wasn't really blown away. Probably won't purchase the full game when it comes out.

I also never played any of the past Crysis games so I have no story investment.

Yup. Pretty much the same impressions. It's fun to some degree, but nothing to write home about. Also, not being able to raise my FPS beyond 20 without substantially downgrading the graphics pretty much spells "no buy" for me.

Also, there's barely any story to be invested in. The franchise's biggest draws are the graphics and more open-ended gameplay scenarios compared to the run-of-the-mill shooters. I reckon it's pretty much going to be an updated version of Crysis 2, so you can grab it on a sale if you feel slightly interested.

Ken's Rage 2 and Dead Space 3 tomorrow! Super stoked for Ken's Rage 2, not really because it's derivative as hell, I just like the combat, and Anarchy Reigns left me sorely fucking disappointed with beat'em ups in the New Year.

I stress again: Path of Exile is the goddamn shit. Second coming of classic Diablo with enough fresh and creative ideas to distinguish it. ENDLESS replayability with the passive skill tree and all the items and shit. Beautiful graphics and dark, gritty, realistic atmosphere, wonderful loot system, satisfying gameplay, the flask system is a brilliant update from potions; the gem system with superficial comparisons to FF7's materia is wonderful and allows tons of spell/skill/item possibilities, etc...and it's fucking FREE! What the shit.

So it seems The Witcher 3 has a name: Wild Hunt! Oh man, am I so fucking looking forward to this!!!! Big grin on my face.

I immediately gobbled up every bit of info I could find on this, but I'm not so sure about the "huge open world" thing.

The Witcher 2 had a scope just big enough to warrant exploration and avoid making you feel constricted, but not big enough to where the content and gameplay starts being almost entirely filler (Skyrim) or detract from narrative. There weren't a ton of sidequest, but they where mostly high quality. Not a ton of environments, but they had uniqueness and a point. It was exactly what it needed to be.In fact, I consider W2 so diametrically opposed to the unmemorable, vapid sea of button mashing, shit writing, filler, and nothingess as examplified by games like Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur, that "a world even bigger than Skyrim" as a selling point baffles me. I guess what I'm trying to say is "me no care how big, quality > quantity"Let's hope it's just marketing drivel and the dev team still has it's priorities straight though, what really excites me is the prospect is more focus on what a witcher actually does, about coming into a town terrorized by a mysterious foe, working like a paranormal detective and monster hunting as a project that needs research and preperation AKA the monster hunter series.

So? I never said you could beat the whole thing without casting any spells. Berserk is just a status effect and your party's lack of good spellcasting stats isn't going to affect it at all (as far as I remember anyway).

Well, I see the goalposts keep shifting I guess, I don't believe I said anything about stats, but Zelkiro was saying magic was 100% worthless in the game and I was saying he was a dumbass for saying so it really wasn't, and in fact it's very useful (whether it's for support or attack) and fairly powerful, and there's at least one place where it's pretty much required unless you use very specific workarounds (and even that one workaround requires using at least one Esper to learn a spell). *shrugs*

I'm not shifting any goalposts. I agreed with you when you said that magic was far from 100% worthless in the game.

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MorbidBlood wrote:

So the winner is Destruction and Infernal Overkill is the motherfucking skullcrushing poserkilling satan-worshiping 666 FUCK YOU greatest german thrash record.